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At what point do you tell a customer that their acoustic instrument needs a bridge reglue? Do you do it when the corners are just barely starting to lift? Once it has begun to affect playability/tuning stability? Do you offer half-measures to save them money when the damage is not too bad (dripping in some thinned tite bond instead of removing the bridge entirely for example)? I ask this because a Godin acoustic bass just came across my…

I have a Favilla Classical guitar on the bench, in for a bridge reglue. This is a low to mid-range classical guitar, made circa 1960, and it's an heirloom guitar for the customer, he basically wants it back in playing shape. The story is that he went away on vacation, and when he returned the bridge had delaminated from the top and took a fair amount of finish with it. It also appears that someone attempted to glob on superglue at some…

I'm restoring an old parlor guitar. I have just discovered that it plays 20 cents sharp. Thats not in and of itself a mystery, usually. This guitar however has exactly the same distance from the nut to the 12th fret, and from the 12th fret to the "saddle" which is now a small shim under the two E strings both are 12 3/32"...with room in front of the bridge pins to finesse the location of the saddle slot, which I have not routed yet) I s…

Hi there! Working on a Squire Vintage Modified Jag. relevelled and crowned the frets. Lovely job. Set the relief and action to factory spec. So far so good. With a capo on the first fret, I set the string radius at the saddles to 9.5" using an under-string radius gauge, everything lined up nicely... ...but when I measured the action of all the strings along the 14th fret using my digital nut slotting gauge (expecting a unifo…

Hi all, I'm new here. I've been playing guitars for ~15 years and recently started as a technician at a music production school in London, where part of my job is maintaining the guitars. I picked up this 50s parlor nylon the other day and it's in bad shape but I don't know how to go about repairing it. The main issue is the bridge. The guitar was kept high strung and the bridge has twisted and lifted off slightly at the base. T…

I have a 74' D-28 im working on, just curious what you guys do in terms of process steps. Right now, im setting the angle, without frets(I reinforced the square tube rod with carbon fiber and will need to refret once put back together.) Do you guys shoot for the straight edge hitting the top of the bridge with, or without frets? Im wondering if I should undershoot my bridge just a touch so that then I can fret and have a good saddle hei…

Does anybody have any cool tricks to get a closer rough in saddle height when making a new saddle without the option of referencing the old one? Ex: replacing a lost saddle, making a saddle after a neck reset, making a saddle for a new bridge

Hi, I have a 1950's Gibson LG-3 that's had some poor work done to the spruce under the area of the bridge where the spruce has pulled away and or been sanded excessively. It's missing about .020-0.30 thou of spruce and I'm wondering/looking for advice about how to go about splicing in a thin piece of spruce before I re-glue the bridge. Please see pictures attached. My main questions are: glues for the patch, should the patch be mitered…

Hi everyone - I recently ran into trouble making new nut for one of my necks that needed to be trued and re-fretted. I roughed in the nut as usual and then, with the bass guitar fully assembled and strung up, I started cutting the slots to depth. I use the StewMac digital nut slot depth gauge and have had good results in the past. I marked the nut's lowest points (radiused) using the guitar nut scribe tool (first time using this!) and c…

Santa heard I had a challenging year so he got me a 3d printer for Christmas. I’ve been printing like crazy, learning the machine. This has resulted in a bunch of tools that either don’t work for me, were attempts at mixing colors, or have very minor printing blemishes. Two lots up for grabs to anyone in the US who wants either. I’ll mail to you for free. First one to claim each gets it :) First lot has parametric nut and saddle sanders…

I recently picked up a Sterling Atlas 12 string that is in excellent shape except for some bellying, which once I get into setting action, may determine if I need to add a ‘bridge doctor’ to remediate some of it. However, I noticed that the saddle (adjustable but set to lowest point) has no curvature and there is not much down pressure on the center sets of strings which is causing some buzzing. My question is this (my first 12 string p…

Hey all, I’m curious to know people’s general thoughts on the appropriate or ideal saddle height after a reset. And, when to replace a bridge that’s been shaved down. I know there are a lot of factors (for me anyhow) and this question could open a whole can of worms when it comes to the specifics of the guitar, its age, style of bridge and desired sound. I’m providing an example I encountered recently, but would also like to know people…

Ok, I'm a new builder and I've only done solidbody electrics so far, so this question is related to only those. In my opinion, these are the things that have the most impact on tone, listed in order from most influential to least. Have at it! Pickup/electronics, neck joint type, neck construction (including fret size/material), scale length, bridge type, bridge saddle material, tone wood Of course, this only takes into account the guitar.…

Would you have any recommendations on wiring configurations and piezo controllers to replace the electronics in my Music Man Reflex, which used to have the Game Changer system? The guitar has an HSH pickup configuration with a piezo bridge pickup. It has three existing holes for Volume/Tone/Blend, a blade switch slot, and a 3-way switch hole. When I bought this guitar about a decade ago, the Game Changer system offered a mind-numbingly a…

I inherited a 70's D28 that is a players instrument. The action is too high for me, but the saddle is bottomed out. There is no obvious belly bulge. The top of the bridge has been shaved. Bridge pin holes are uneven in diameter. However, the bridge placement seems pretty close; within 1/32". A straight edge on the fret board sits about 1/8" below the top of the bridge. The fret board has plenty of finger worn wells, there is virtually n…

I need some advice on replacing some saddles. I have been restoring a "dumpster dive" 1972 Gibson SB-400 bass, with a Multiplex bridge. It has nylon saddles, one of which has a crack. The screws upon which the saddles ride are not removable, as the end has an enlarged cap (see picture). How do I replace the saddles without destroying the screws? I repaired the cracking nylon saddle by supergluing two layers of fiberglass wrap (used for f…

Hi Folks. I have a new Gibson L-00 retro on the bench. It came in because the saddle had pulled forward and was extremely loose in the slot. the saddle was a narrow affair measuring out at 3/32. It had buzzing issues as well because saddle was low and neck angle is actually high (straight edge is 5/32 above bridge). Previous looth tried to correct by shimming saddle but recommended me for bridge work. I re-slotted the saddle slot wi…

I've got a Gretch G2420T with Bigsby B60 on my repair bench. When the customer plays, the strings are coming out of the saddles. We're thinking of replacing the B60 with a Bigsby B70 to increase the break angle over the saddles and bridge. Any concerns with that? I noticed the B70 is only on center block models. The G2420T is hollow body. Will the inside braces support the B70 enough?